What does it take to get us to finally examine our own life? Many people are still picking up the fragments of their old ideas about life - ideas that were shattered on September 11, 2001.

After the shock, grief, tears and anger come the question. But these questions go beyond the political, military, and philosophical, into the personal. Not only was our sense of security attacked, but also our confidence in what we believe to be true about life itself.

Where was God when this happened? What really matters in life anymore? Where is my on life going and what is it about? Can we ever believe in God, or a loving God, again?

Let's start with that question. After all, if God were good, He would never have allowed something like this to happen, would He? Since He should have the ability to stop it, and didn't, He can't be good.

Before you go too far with that argument, however, consider the words of New York City Mayor Guiliani at the 'Prayer for America" service in Yankee Stadium: "Now we understand more clearly why people form all over the world want to come to New York and to America. It's called Freedom."

Ah, freedom, the beautiful, two-edged sword. How we Americans love our freedom, our world of choices and options. Freedom to pursue lofty virtues and goals, however, must of necessity include the freedom to pursue evil and immoral goals.

While the question itself seems silly, would you want to live in a world without personal choices? If God immediately corrected all the abuses of free will, a bullet shot from a gun could turn instantly into a marshmallow, and the air would refuse to carry sound waves containing lies or cruel speech.

But in such a world, freedom itself would be a casualty. Would you want to live in a world where everyone had to behave a certain way? Try to exclude the possibility of suffering - which free will involves - means excluding life itself. Because life is about choices. As a nation we are seeing firsthand that we can be both victimized by choices made by attackers, and blessed by choices made by rescue workers.

But if God allows such a world, how can He be caring? It is interesting to note that of all the gods worshiped in our world, only one has lost a child. Jesus Himself suffered a hostile, physical attack on the cross.

If God never endured suffering Himself, He might well be unsympathetic to our pain. And if God does not even exist, then we are left with no consolation at all. Even our anger is trivialized. We then have to accept life as meaningless and unjust - with little practical recourse.

But this same Jesus also stood and wept at the grave of a beloved friend. Though He knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead moments later, Jesus wept at the loss.

Death hurts. It steals, empties and crushes the life out of our hope. It hurt Jesus to know that his friend had to experience the end of his life. Yet Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead and proclaim, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25,26).

Here is the voice of God, calling us to choose to place our faith in Him. Yet, the choice is ours; it isn't forced. We wouldn't want it to be. That's our freedom too.

If you're at a point in your spiritual journey where you're ready to make this choice, it's as simple as a short prayer of desire: Thank Jesus for His suffering on the cross on your behalf, ask Him to forgive your sin, and express your desire to put your life in His hands. That straightforward step of faith is your initial entrance into a relationship with God that will last for all eternity.

While that kind of faith doesn't guarantee answers to all your questions, it does guarantee that God stands beside you through all the questions, and it promises a life full of meaning and purpose - a new kind of freedom.

You might not yet be at this point of choice on your spiritual journey. If not, keep seeking, keep asking, keep wrestling with the issues of what it means to know God personally. The greatest tragedy from the attacks would be if we learned nothing from them as a nation, or as a person.

On Wall Street, we make calculated decisions every day, every minute, involving hundreds of millions of dollars. But we make the hard decisions. How much more important are decisions about our life, particularly our relationship with God?